Causing a splash at the spa

Published in The Post-Star (D1)
3/26/07

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Saratoga's famous mineral water splashed into the headlines last week when the New York Post reported that the Roosevelt Baths in Spa State Park were being diluted with municipal tap water.

The mixed water was never a secret, according to many locals, but it raises another question: Does it even matter?

In previous centuries, the medicinal benefits of mineral water -- as a bath or a tonic -- were viewed as common knowledge. Entire cities sprang from springs, and doctors advised sick patients to "take the waters" in places like Saratoga Springs.

But in this age of hi-tech medicine and high-powered pharmaceutical companies, the connection between mineral water and mainstream medicine seems to have sprung a leak.

"It used to be very mainstream. A number of hospitals were built around mineral springs, and now we're the only one in the nation that still uses one," said Dr. Les Moore, director of integrative medicine at Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic, near Rochester.

He explained that Clifton Springs is a traditional hospital that decided a few years ago to add a department of "integrative medicine," once again using its mineral springs to promote healing. That's called hydrotherapy, or balneotherapy when it refers specifically to bathing.

Although spas in Europe and Asia still flourish, American interest in hydrotherapy seemed to evaporate around the mid-20th century.

"It still works, it's just that now we've got all these supposedly better drugs that came out, which are more easily packaged and sellable," Moore explained. "But I think it's making a comeback."

That's exactly what Mary Chamberlain, a Glens Falls acupuncturist, would like to see happen to the Roosevelt Baths.

"I do not understand what happened in Saratoga," she said. "I see all the money they're spending on Saratoga Hospital, and they talk about expanding ... they have it right under their nose! They could build an incredible rehab center at the baths."

Chamberlain is part of the New York Spa Promotion Alliance, and said she has met many others who share her views.

"Perhaps the townspeople could become shareholders in the spa," she said. "So many people are interested. I think it's totally possible."

Minerals like magnesium, iron and lithium are present in various springs throughout Saratoga, and Chamberlain believes each has unique benefits.

"The lithium spring is good for mental and emotional balance, for example," she said.

Dr. Koock Jung, a Queensbury psychiatrist, had a different reaction when asked if he believed that mineral water has medicinal value.

"Oh, God, no," he said. "We prescribe lithium for manic depression and bipolar disorder ... but there would be miniscule amounts, almost nothing, in the water."

Chamberlain said she knew the Roosevelt Baths were diluted, and thinks this reflects the perception that even the spa's management doesn't see the water as medicinal.

"It's like they think it's just a bubble bath, and as long as there are bubbles, the benefits are the same," she said.

She worries that bathers may be absorbing chlorine from the tap water without knowing it.

The city puts chlorine in its water supply to clean it, said Tom Kirkpatrick, chief water plant operator, but the residual amount is only about .5 parts per million.

"I don't think that small amount would have a harmful effect from bathing in it -- it's not even as high as chlorine in a swimming pool," he said. "But my personal opinion is, if you're paying for a mineral bath and you're only getting half of the minerals you're paying for, it doesn't seem right."

Kirkpatrick, 52, said he grew up in Saratoga Springs and has been drinking from the mineral springs for years, although he's never bathed in them.

"I like the taste," he said. "If it has health effects, so be it."